Modena and girante

It’s been a few weeks since I got back from Budapest, Vienna, Rome and Ischia. In my last post, I said I would choose to either update more often or do less interesting things so there was less to write about. I chose the latter. I found out, after begrudgingly walking to a class in the rain, that the class sessions are over and all that is left is the exam. It’s a bit worrisome for me seeing as that I haven’t done any work yet. I thought that putting my Facebook status as “Today begins scholastic David” would make me do work. It did not. Well, that’s not totally true. I did do a bit of reading for my Analysis of Political Language class and a bit for Latin American institutions and history, the class I took “non-frequentare” and the one that is now over, respectively. Tuesday, I’m going on a field trip with my Agrarian Economics class to an organic pasta factory and we’re having lunch. It should be very interesting and hopefully tasty.

This week, after I found out that I would not have any classes after Monday, I decided it would be a perfect time to travel and see a bit more of Italy of Europe. I emailed my cousin, Giulisa to see if she would be around to host me in Ischia or Naples. She said she would and that I should let her know if I needed a bed made up for me. Meanwhile however, I was offered to join a trip that Annie had planned to Lucca, Siena and a little “giro” around some really interesting cities. I said I would go with them instead of to Naples. To make a long, incredibly frustrating story short, we couldn’t properly plan a trip because no one was committed and in order to make arrangements for hostels and such we needed total cooperation. (An aside: I say “proper” now, in the sense of “Your feet hurt? You should buy some proper shoes,” because I spend so much time with the Irish and English. It’s a good word. I think we should adopt it in the US. It would bring a bit more colour, a bit more flavour to our language.) We toyed for a bit with going to Slovenia or Croatia for a short stay either at the shore in Croatia in an Italian area of going to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. Nothing worked and I missed a chance to go out on a Thursday night with everyone else. It was the most upset I have been since I got to Italy (which is absolutely saying something about how I can’t get too caught up in anything here since it was just very intensely frustrating and I went to bed and woke up happy).

We ended up settling for day trips instead of one big trip and on Saturday morning, we woke up and got on a bus to get on a train for Modena and Bologna. Modena is about two-and-a-half to three hours north of Pesaro so it makes for a great short trip. It is an incredibly beautiful city that mixes modern elements with moderately old buildings; nothing Roman that I’m aware of, but maybe Renaissance. Modena, famous for balsamic vinegar, of which I would end up buying a miniscule six-year-old bottle for more than €6, is mall enough to remain quaint but big enough to offer things to do. It is very archetypal Italian. What I liked most about it was, not only that it still had its own culture and was not crowded with tourists, but also that people were riding bikes everywhere in the streets without seeming to risk life and limb as is the case in Rome. BIKES! I miss my bike and bikes in general. After a short look around Modena, which included lunch, we got back on the train and went to Bologna to look around for a bit. I would have liked Bologna more had I not just been to it’s smaller, cleaner, less touristy and less crowded cousin only 30 minutes to the north. I would also like Bologna more if I were a girl who loved shopping, like the other 9 people accompanying me. That being said, I did like Bologna. I would love to go back when I have a bit more time to look around and there is no one there. Maybe when my cousin studies there next year!

Other than that, the past few weeks have been pretty ordinary; days full of coffee, sunlight, tea, Mensa, walks to the center to get coffee and a bit of sunlight, night full of wine and joking and…boh. Yesterday was Sunday, and thus, FUNday and, as it was the first Funday of the month, it was the antiques fair in the piazza. Once again, it was full of heavy, fragile, sharp, expensive, old things, which presents a problem for bringing back home anything, were I to buy something. It was still nice to see people in the streets. It’s like First Fridays in Richmond. I don’t find the art that great and I often feel like everyone is there to out-artsy each other, but on the other hand, it’s nice to see people doing something in Richmond. My parents called me successfully for the first time since I’ve been in Italy. Not that they aren’t trying, but I inadvertently bought a SIM card of the worst cell phone brand in Italy. It was great to hear from them especially since the Internet is so flaky here and hasn’t been working for the past few days so I can’t properly Skype them (See? It works). After I got off the phone and had my second walk through of the market, I had a gelato and after another walk through the market, my third, and an aperativo with Romain (by the way, the Godfather is big here now. Thanks Celena and Alex), we went back to the collegio for a hookah and eventually dinner. I planned to read after dinner, but I got distracted by trying to figure out what to do with the night.

This week, I have a grand total of two classes to attend plus one aforementioned field trip. My intercultural management class is cancelled for the second time in a row and without Latin American history and institutions, all I have is three hours of Italian language, spread across two days. This huge scheduling gap will give me plenty of time to read. Right? Vediamo.
With love and coffee from Italy,
David